NYC Mayor Signs Executive Order Requiring Pedestrian Alerts and Speed Limiters on City Fleet

Source: The official website of the City of New York ↗

New York City Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani signed Executive Order 19, directing the Department of Citywide Administrative Services to retrofit roughly 4,000 existing civilian fleet trucks with pedestrian alert systems by June 2029 and to require intelligent speed assistance technology on all new non-emergency vehicle and truck procurements.

“Our administration expects every driver to do their part to keep our streets safe for everyone, and that begins with those behind the wheel of our city vehicles,” Mayor Mamdani said. “Pedestrian alerts and speed-limiting technology deliver immediate results, and we can waste no time in keeping our neighbors safe.”

Pedestrian alerts connect to a vehicle’s turn signals and make an audible alert to warn pedestrians, bicyclists and other street users of the driver’s plan to turn. Intelligent speed assistance limits vehicle acceleration once a vehicle exceeds the posted speed limit or a threshold set by DCAS.

DCAS reached 1,000 city vehicles retrofitted with speed-limiting technology in June. Those vehicles span 21 agencies and 23 vehicle types and have logged more than 8 million miles using the technology since August 2022. DCAS said the program has reduced dangerous speeding among equipped vehicles by 64%, calling it the largest intelligent speed assistance fleet in the country. The agency plans to retrofit additional vehicles with intelligent speed assistance, or ISA, as feasible.

“Safer streets mean safer communities, and with this executive order, Mayor Mamdani is affirming our ability at DCAS to directly impact the lives of New Yorkers through our municipal fleet,” DCAS Commissioner Yume Kitasei said. “We are proud to build on our efforts to modernize our fleet; through speed assistance technology, pedestrian turn alerts and telematics tracking, we are protecting drivers and pedestrians alike.”

“Mayor Mamdani’s Executive Order is our next big step for fleet safety,” said DCAS Deputy Commissioner and NYC Chief Fleet Officer Keith Kerman. “Pedestrian alerts on trucks will help warn and safeguard road users when trucks are making turns in the city and the expansion of intelligent speed assistance will slow the fleet down. DCAS looks forward to working with all agencies and vehicle suppliers to get these safe new technologies installed.”

DCAS manages ISA operations through its Fleet Office of Real Time Tracking, or FORT, which monitors more than 29,000 vehicles and maintains the speed limit maps, tracking systems and controls the technology requires. The order covers any contract for the purchase or lease of a non-emergency municipal fleet vehicle going forward.

DCAS has installed more than 105,000 safety upgrades, including truck side guards, backup alerts and surround cameras, in the city fleet in under a decade. The agency manages the largest electric vehicle fleet and charging network in New York State, with 5,850 EVs and 2,500 chargers, and operates the first large fleet on the East Coast to transition completely from fossil diesel to renewable diesel.